I recently checked out the AAA perqs for being a member. One of the ways is to buy a book of 10 movie tickets for $7 each ticket for any movie, and a book of 10 movie tickets for $6 each for a movie not on special engagement.

Over the life of that book of tickets, I would save $30 over the life of that book... say I see 30 movies a year (2 tickets per movie at least)... that's $90 worth of savings! WOW...

I've been brown bagging it to work lately. It's amazing how much less money you spend - and the food is smaller proportions and healthier, so better for me. Even if it's say $6 a day x 5 days, that's $30 a week. Over about 50 weeks a year that's $1,500. If I have a sandwich or something from home that costs me something like $500 for the year - a $1000 yearly savings!

I've been brown bagging it to work lately. It's amazing how much less money you spend - and the food is smaller proportions and healthier, so better for me. Even if it's say $6 a day x 5 days, that's $30 a week. Over about 50 weeks a year that's $1,500. If I have a sandwich or something from home that costs me something like $500 for the year - a $1000 yearly savings!

QFT!

I used to go out for lunch at work. Even if I only spend $5 a day on lunch, that's $25 a week vs spending maybe $5-$7 total for the week. A loaf of bread is a few bucks, sandwich meat a couple more, buy a big bag of chips and portion it out into sandwich bags, then top it off with a piece of fruit and you're looking at most likely a cost of less than $2 a day...you sure can't top that if you go out.

I also save a nice chunk of money by doing my own oil changes. Most places probably charge you about $15-$20 for an oil change whereas if you spend 30 minutes to an hour of your own time, you can do it at a fraction of the cost. If you coupon hunt, a case of oil can cost less than a dollar a quart. Oil filters cost about $4. So in all an oil change will cost you about $7 and an hour of your time. Over the course of a year, that saves around $100 which is a nice chunk of dough that could be better used on some ladies.

Another big money saver is that I rarely go out to the movie theaters anymore. I used to go every week during high school when it was actually affordable. $6 for a student ticket 7 or 8 years ago was actually fair, but now that tickets cost at least $10 at any decent theater, your wallet takes a big dent before you even walk in the door (especially when you buy a ticket for a date ). Instead, I just rather wait for stuff to come on DVD and rent/buy it for less than what it would have cost me to see it at the theater. I've proably gone to the theater less than 5 times in the past year (though I did have to make an exception for Transformers ).

Write stuff down. I keep track of all the money that comes in and all that goes out. And I at least have a vague idea of where it goes (rent, bills, food, etc.). When I see I'm spending way too much money on something, I cut back. Food is a big one for us. We also like to buy DVDs. And I have an expensive video game habit.

I highly recommend this. However you do it, keep track of the money you spend. You'll be amazed/horrified._________________Game recognize game, Granddad. - Riley Freeman, The Boondocks

- Use rewards credit cards. I get all kinds of money back that I normally would not just using my ATM card. Use it strictly at grocery stores, gas stations and pharmacies. I usually net about $600 in rewards every year. I use the Chase Rewards card. It earns the most... 5% back.

- I also live at SlickDeals.net! They constantly have great deals posted and numerous ways to save money. For instance, I recently took my family down to San Diego to go to Sea World. I found out how to get a 3/4 star hotel for the price of a Motel 6 on Priceline!

- I definitely agree with the "brown baggin' it" philosophy!_________________Don't make me give you a trout slap!

Write stuff down. I keep track of all the money that comes in and all that goes out. And I at least have a vague idea of where it goes (rent, bills, food, etc.). When I see I'm spending way too much money on something, I cut back. Food is a big one for us. We also like to buy DVDs. And I have an expensive video game habit.

I highly recommend this. However you do it, keep track of the money you spend. You'll be amazed/horrified.

imagine when I looked at my iBank (which is like Quicken for Apple) and saw that I had spent more than $100 at Starbucks in two weeks... $8/morning for my girlfriend and I and then sometimes I would go twice a day. iTunes is another one of those things that mess me up... $9.99 here, $9.99 there... click here, click there... :sigh:

- Use rewards credit cards. I get all kinds of money back that I normally would not just using my ATM card. Use it strictly at grocery stores, gas stations and pharmacies. I usually net about $600 in rewards every year. I use the Chase Rewards card. It earns the most... 5% back.

- I also live at SlickDeals.net! They constantly have great deals posted and numerous ways to save money. For instance, I recently took my family down to San Diego to go to Sea World. I found out how to get a 3/4 star hotel for the price of a Motel 6 on Priceline!

- Use rewards credit cards. I get all kinds of money back that I normally would not just using my ATM card. Use it strictly at grocery stores, gas stations and pharmacies. I usually net about $600 in rewards every year. I use the Chase Rewards card. It earns the most... 5% back.

- I also live at SlickDeals.net! They constantly have great deals posted and numerous ways to save money. For instance, I recently took my family down to San Diego to go to Sea World. I found out how to get a 3/4 star hotel for the price of a Motel 6 on Priceline!

- I definitely agree with the "brown baggin' it" philosophy!

Good call! I'm getting married at the end of this month and we're spending a boat load on the wedding. We hooked up a rewards card for all the spending and it's gonna pay for our honeymoon and more. I'm definitely taking advantage of this more often.

- Use rewards credit cards. I get all kinds of money back that I normally would not just using my ATM card. Use it strictly at grocery stores, gas stations and pharmacies. I usually net about $600 in rewards every year. I use the Chase Rewards card. It earns the most... 5% back.

- I also live at SlickDeals.net! They constantly have great deals posted and numerous ways to save money. For instance, I recently took my family down to San Diego to go to Sea World. I found out how to get a 3/4 star hotel for the price of a Motel 6 on Priceline!

- I definitely agree with the "brown baggin' it" philosophy!

Checking it out now... awesome site! Thanks!!!

Just be careful! SlickDeals can be habit forming and then you starting spending more money because your saving so much money! _________________Don't make me give you a trout slap!

- Use rewards credit cards. I get all kinds of money back that I normally would not just using my ATM card. Use it strictly at grocery stores, gas stations and pharmacies. I usually net about $600 in rewards every year. I use the Chase Rewards card. It earns the most... 5% back.

- I also live at SlickDeals.net! They constantly have great deals posted and numerous ways to save money. For instance, I recently took my family down to San Diego to go to Sea World. I found out how to get a 3/4 star hotel for the price of a Motel 6 on Priceline!

- I definitely agree with the "brown baggin' it" philosophy!

Checking it out now... awesome site! Thanks!!!

Just be careful! SlickDeals can be habit forming and then you starting spending more money because your saving so much money!

There's a $99 dinner for two at Morton's on there... my gf's bday is right around the sept 30 expiration date

i guess it's as simple as that. I just don't buy myself anything. As far as luxuries i mean. I just spend my money on bills, gas, food, or if i decide to take my fiancee out to dinner or disneyland (we have passes) I buy myself something nice about once every few months whether it be a shirt, video game, movie.

AND, As silly and lame as this may sound, i have a serious disneyland addiction and I thank a good chunk of my savings on getting disneyland passes. Sure, you pay about 200 bucks at first but w/ 3 trips after the fact, it pays for itself. tickets are now almost 70 bucks. With three trips, thats already the price of one pass.

and you guys will probably make fun of me for this but, mommy and daddy paid for my car and are currently paying for the insurance as well. So, that's two major bills I never had to pay._________________Thank you, Kobe. We love you.

- Use rewards credit cards. I get all kinds of money back that I normally would not just using my ATM card. Use it strictly at grocery stores, gas stations and pharmacies. I usually net about $600 in rewards every year. I use the Chase Rewards card. It earns the most... 5% back.

- I also live at SlickDeals.net! They constantly have great deals posted and numerous ways to save money. For instance, I recently took my family down to San Diego to go to Sea World. I found out how to get a 3/4 star hotel for the price of a Motel 6 on Priceline!

- I definitely agree with the "brown baggin' it" philosophy!

Checking it out now... awesome site! Thanks!!!

Just be careful! SlickDeals can be habit forming and then you starting spending more money because your saving so much money!

There's a $99 dinner for two at Morton's on there... my gf's bday is right around the sept 30 expiration date

And so it begins...

Some of my Slickest Deals:
- Upgraded my memory on my laptop to 1GB. Normally costs: $100. I bought it for $25 shipped!
- Got a $250/night hotel room in San Diego for $55/night.
- I got Burnout Revenge, Tomb Raider: Legends, Lost Planet, Full Auto and 19,200 Microsoft Points all for the XBox 360 for free.
- I bought a Bowflex normally priced anywhere between $800 - $1,000 for only $400 shipped and it comes with a $100 gift card!_________________Don't make me give you a trout slap!

Put your money in a savings account and forget you have it. I remember reading somewhere that most lotto winners lose their entire winnings within 5 years. Let your brain process exactly how much money you have before you go spending it. Most people overestimate how much they have.

Coupons. I'm not one of those people that obsessively goes through the sunday paper for coupons and alphabetizes them, but if I see one in the mail for a restaurant or service that I use frequently, then I put it in my car or in a drawer. I used to just throw that stuff straight into the trash.

I definitely agree with the rewards credit card. I have one that I only use for restaurants and gas stations. And always pay that ish off in full at the end of the month! This is something my father drilled into my head from a very young age, before I even had a credit card. Paying interest is such a waste of money.

Just thought I'd bring this thread back from the dead considering I did something very money-wise this week... usually I just buy movies when they come out whether or not I've seen them. I buy just regular DVDs, not Blu-Ray or anything, so the quality is fair on my 27-inch LCD. Well, Michael Clayton came out Tuesday and I had the movie in my hands, then I said, "Hey, I'll just rent it on iTunes. The quality will be just as good and if I don't like it, I'm only down $4 instead of $18 (after taxes)." I thought about this and counted all the unopened DVDs I have and if I did this for all of those, I'd have saved probably close to $100.

The moral of this story is that renting is often much better than buying._________________MTFBWYA